Andrew Cuomo Accuses Prosecutor Who Charged Alec Baldwin for Fatal Shooting of Being Driven by Political Ambition, Not the Law
Former Democratic Governor of New York, Andrew Cuomo, weighed in on the recent charge of involuntary manslaughter against actor Alec Baldwin by a New Mexico district attorney over the deadly shooting on the set of his film Rust.
The charges were announced last week by New Mexico’s First Judicial District Attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies .
The incident took place on October 21, 2021, on the film’s set in New Mexico. Baldwin was practicing drawing his weapon for a scene, a Colt .45 revolver, when the gun went off killing cinematographer Halyna Hutchins and wounding director Joel Souza.
On Thursday, Cuomo weighed in on the charges during a newly released episode of his podcast, As A Matter Of Fact… With Andrew Cuomo.
Cuomo suggested that the prosecutor on the case could have political ambitions. Cuomo disclosed before his commentary that he is friends with Baldwin and his family.
“Prosecutors are politicians. Prosecutors are politicians,” Cuomo repeated.
“‘Well, a prosecutor is above politics’ — Prosecutors are politicians. ‘Well, they’re not supposed to take politics into account.’ Prosecutors are politicians and they are human beings,” Cuomo continued.
Cuomo says there were two options in the investigation, the first being to charge Baldwin and get “headlines” and “free publicity.”
“Human beings have frailties, and have egos and have ambitions. This conundrum happens for prosecutors all the time. You can either charge Alec Baldwin and get a lot of headlines and look like you’re tough, that you’re going to take on the powerful Hollywood big shot and then lose the case knowing you’re going to lose the case. But then politically, you can say, ‘I gave it my best. And by the way, in the interim, I got $10 million dollars worth of free publicity.’ Right?” Cuomo explained.
The second option, Cuomo suggests would be to go off the “facts.”
“Or you could say, ‘On the facts, on the merits. This was a terrible, terrible tragedy on many levels and just a really terrible accident. But there was no intent to hurt anyone. And at the essence of this crime is intent. It’s unfortunate, it’s terrible, but it’s not a crime,'” Cuomo said.
“And I believe that would’ve been the right position here. Now, it would’ve been the more difficult position politically for the prosecutor because you don’t get all the publicity of charging Alec Baldwin. You don’t get all the publicity of the trial and you probably take criticism for people who say, ‘Well, the prosecutor didn’t wanna do it because it was Alec Baldwin,'” he continued.
“I understand it was politically the more difficult position. I also believe it was the right position. But with many of these situations, don’t forget, prosecutors are politicians. Prosecutors are politicians. And when you’re named a prosecutor, it’s not that you get hit by a lightning bolt, and all human weakness is removed from your body,” Cuomo concluded.
Watch above via As A Matter Of Fact… With Andrew Cuomo.
